Parks and Recreation gets season 7 Community Season 6...Posted by Byron Bojangles III on 1/19/14 at 2:01 pm

10

"A strong possibility"

quote:Leslie Knope will be back! At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt ended up revealing -- albeit a bit reluctantly -- that Parks and Recreation will return for Season 7.

Networks like to keep their plans close to the vest until an official announcement is ready and at first, asked about the future of both Community and Parks and Recreation, Greenblatt replied, “Parks and Rec and Community are great shows. They’re shows I know a lot of people in this room like. We do too. We’ll have to look at how much comedy will be on the schedule in the fall and where it will land but I think both those shows are strong possibilities for returning.”

Greenblatt added, “It’s always dicey to say anything definitive because you have no idea how all the creative [come to us] when we say anything definitive. We’re feeling bullish about Parks and Rec. That’s all I can say.”

The term “bullish,” for whatever reason, has been a go-to for network executives at this press tour, including The CW’s president using it describing The Flash’s chances. Pressed by HitFix's Dan Fienberg on his use of the word, and what we should take it to mean, Greenblatt finally relented, “Parks and Rec is going to have a seventh season.”

Considering Greenblatt had just announced a new three-year production deal with Amy Poehler, including a new comedy she’ll co-create for Natasha Lyonne to star in, Parks and Rec’s renewal makes sense as they further that relationship.

Both he and NBC president Jennifer Salke noted that this confirmation on Parks and Rec doesn’t mean we should assume anything about Community, again saying it was in contention for renewal. Parks and Rec and Community remain NBC’s highest-rated comedies – not a big claim considering how badly the network’s entire comedy lineup is doing, but once again, Community has a good change for renewal, because it has its loyal, core audience, which can make a difference when you have shows doing as badly as Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show are doing.

Greenblatt said that NBC are considering finally changing up the longtime Thursday night two-hour comedy block on NBC. He noted that while they are committed to building comedy back up at the network, when it came to Thursdays specifically, “We may shuffle the whole deck in genres for that night.”